Category: For Bar Studiers

The bar exam is still given on paper. Even though you can type your answers to the MPT and essays, you are still given those questions (and the MBEs) in paper booklets. Therefore, it’s important to practice reading questions on paper as well.

Bar review companies boast about their fantastic online technology that allow you to highlight, underline, and make notes on questions on your computer screen. While these technological advancements are great, they’re not the same as putting pencil to paper.

While people read and retain information differently on paper and on computer screens, the real concern regarding practicing on an electronic device, as opposed to on paper, is timing. Many students have reported that after doing MBE practice primarily, or exclusively, on a computer, their timing was vastly different on the actual MBE. That timing discrepancy threw them off, and in some cases meant that they didn’t come close to finishing the exam.

Don’t put yourself in that position. Practice what you will need to do on exam day. You wouldn’t take a road test after only playing driving video games. Don’t practice in the wrong medium for the bar exam either.

You want to do three things each day – watch your lecture, make/tweak your study materials, and do some form of practice. This means doing MBEs and essays every day (or at least every other day), and at least one MPT per week.

The only way to do well on the bar exam, is to get ready for the bar exam. That means practicing what you will be doing on exam day, every single day. It is not enough to memorize the law. If you don’t know how you apply it, and how the bar examiners will test you on it, you will not be successful.

You can use the checklist each week to make sure that you are doing the minimum practice each week that you will need to succeed. The more practice you can do, the better, but you want to make sure that you are doing it thoughtfully. Don’t just race through 50 MBE questions, for example, tally your score, and move on. You need to go through each question (yes, even the ones you got right), and make sure you understand why you answered it correctly, or incorrectly. If you learn a new rule, add it to your study materials.

Reflect on why you are answering questions incorrectly. Are you reading too quickly and missing important details? Are you adding facts that aren’t there, or over-analyzing? Once you begin to notice patterns, you can come up with solutions to correct your common mistakes.

Practicing essays, MBEs, and MPTs, also helps you get into the head of the bar examiners. What do they think a reasonable person would do? What are they trying to trigger when they include certain facts? As you begin to practice, you will begin to recognize patterns in the questions, and in what doctrine is heavily tested. On exam day, you will see some questions that are very similar to what you have studied. That is the goal – to see some questions that you feel like you’ve seen before.

In this way, the bar is similar to any other performance you are getting ready for, or any other big day. You wouldn’t get ready for a sporting event, concert, speech, or play without practicing or rehearsing. Don’t minimize the importance of rehearsing for the bar exam either.

Many bar studiers have moments when they think they’re going to fail. Chances are, you won’t. The odds are that you will pass on your first try. You’ve graduated from law school and you are more than capable of passing.

But, it’s true, you may not pass on the first try. So then what will you do? You’ll take it again. That’s it. It will hurt. It will mean another few months of your life devoted to studying for the bar. But, that’s all it is.

It doesn’t mean you won’t be a fabulous lawyer. It doesn’t mean you won’t land your dream job. It doesn’t mean you can’t change the world.

You are not your bar exam score. Your life’s worth isn’t connected to the bar exam. It’s certainly not tied to how many times you take the exam.

Everyone hopes to pass the bar exam the first time, and that should be your goal. You should approach studying as if it’s important to you to pass on the first try.

But, it may help to think about what will happen if you do not pass. Free yourself of that burden and anxiety now. That way, you can focus your energy on studying because you will already have worked through the worst case scenario.

Have compassion for yourself. What would you tell your best friend if they were worried about not passing? What would you tell your best friend if they didn’t pass on the first try?

The truth is that life will go on. You will take it again, and you will pass. Everyone will still love you. And you will still be the amazing advocate you are today.

Check out the incredible Sherrilyn Ifill, the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund speaking at the CUNY School of Law commencement. From minute 1:01:48-1:02:13 she reminds you that, while the movement needs you, right now we need you to focus on studying for the bar exam.

Most bar review companies will tell you that you can memorize from their outlines alone, and making your own study materials is a waste of time. Most people, however, find that relying on the bar review outlines is not enough; they have to make the materials their own in some way. It’s important to engage in a process of making/working with your study materials every day. Think ahead to the last two weeks when you will be memorizing. What do you want to have ready for that process?

You will not have time to create study materials at the end (and use them), so you have to make them now. You will learn a tremendous amount of material with each new lecture, and you have to be finished with your study materials before you leave each subject (which means every 1-3 days, depending on the subject). This means that you need to work quickly and efficiently.

What you did in law school to make the perfect outline, or the best flashcards, may not work now. Don’t strive for perfection. Strive for usable. If you’re spending more than three hours per day on creating study materials, you need to change your approach. You also need to leave time for practice questions every day.

Use the bar review lectures as a guide for what you should focus on. Only go to the bigger outlines for reference. The lecture handouts will include the most heavily tested material, and that should be your foundation. As you practice essays and MBEs, you should add rules that you learn to your outline/flashcards/charts.

Make the study materials that work for you and your method of learning. That might mean that you have more than one kind of study material – an outline and a large flow chart, for example. It is best for the learning process if you make it yourself. But, if that takes too much time, or if didn’t make your own study materials during law school, find a way to make the bar review company’s materials your own in some way. The process of working through the lecture material after the lecture will help you synthesize and solidify the material. That process of learning, understanding, and beginning to internalize the material is the first step towards memorizing.

The key is to find a balance – don’t skip the study materials, but don’t spend all of your time trying to make them perfect.

Most commercial bar review courses begin this week for students studying for the Uniform Bar Exam. The first week or so can feel overwhelming. (It can also feel like it’s not as bad as you predicted. Don’t get too comfortable, the work will increase.)

Make sure that you spend time getting to know your bar companies’ website and the materials that they have sent you. You want to familiarize yourself with the resources you have, so that you know everything that is available to you. Only then can you make informed decisions about what will work for you and what will not.

Most bar review companies will assign more work than will be possible to complete. Remember that your goal is to do three things each day: watch the lecture, make study materials, and do practice questions.

During the bar study period it’s critical to plan everything. Time management, scheduling, and self discipline are skills that are central to success on the bar. Fortunately, they are also skills that you likely already possess as an activist.

You will have to come up with a plan of attack for this exam. You will need to figure out what study materials you need to make and/or purchase. You will need to choose places to study and come up with a daily study schedule. You will also need to schedule basically every minute of the ten weeks that you will be studying.

I suggest that you approach this process as you would any organizing campaign. Think about your goal – to pass the bar exam. Then think about what you need to do in the short, medium, and long term to achieve that goal. Also think about who your allies will be, and who is likely to hinder your efforts.

You need to create a bar study schedule that works best for you. Many people find success in a regularized schedule that has them doing essentially the same thing at the same time each day. Other people find this to be too boring and they need to switch things up. Bar study plans vary. The key is to have a plan, and stick to it (modifying it when necessary to make it a more successful plan).

One of the things that sometimes gets activists in trouble is that they are incredibly involved in their communities. They are part of multiple groups, or hold demanding leadership positions in active organizations. It’s important to disconnect from these rules fully for the bar study period. Social justice activists are often not good at saying no. So, when they say they will cut back or only limit themselves to one of two tasks, they often find themselves being asked to do more than they had originally contemplated. It’s better to completely cut ties for the bar study period. There will be plenty of time afterwards and you will be in s much better position to help. If you don’t give yourself the time you need, you will only end up needing more time in the long run to retake the exam.

It’s important to make plans to disconnect. That means talking to others and putting systems in place to take care of what your would normally take care of. That way, you won’t be fielding last minute calls because no one knows how to do that things you are usually responsible for. It will also give you piece of mind because you can trust that things will get done in the way you would want you to get done.

You should actually think of this process as movement building. Too often activist organizations run on personality and max out and burn out key leaders. Sharing knowledge and deepening the skills of multiple members will lead to more sustainable organizations and will make the work, and the people, stronger. You will soon be able to return to the work more focused and free from the anxiety of law school and bar study.

Since it’s Mother’s Day season, it seems fitting to take a moment to honor the parents who study for the bar exam. Parents who study for the bar have an extra challenge ahead of them. How do you find childcare? How do you manage to spend meaningful time with your children, while maintaining a rigorous study schedule?

First of all, remember that you are in it for the long haul, and your kids will be better for it in the long run. You are a role model for your kids, and they will grow up seeing the value of an education. (Plus whenever they slack off in the future, you can remind them that you went to law school and studied for the bar exam while simultaneously taking care of all of their needs.)

Second, make your kids part of your study process. You should explain to them what is going on (even if they’re too young to understand). Many parents find that their kids like to do homework alongside their parent. Provide them with small ways to help you study.

The most important thing is to make your study schedule in a way that allows you to have meaningful family time every day. Some people set aside dinner and bedtime, while others set aside morning time or afternoon time. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is. What matters is that you give yourself that time and push out the guilty feeling that you should be studying instead. Many parents successfully study for the bar, and you can too.

Were you a parent when you studied for the bar? Leave your story and words of wisdom in the comments!

Graduation season is upon us! Congratulations to everyone graduating from law school this month!

Getting into the celebratory mood can be difficult when you have the bar exam ahead of you. However, it’s important to take some time to celebrate, and reflect on how much you have accomplished. Law school has been hard. There were moments when you thought it was impossible. But you did it!

Remember those first semester exams? It seemed inhumane to be required to memorize that much material, spot that many issues, and write so much in such a short time. But you did it!

Remember learning to use Lexis and Westlaw? Remember learning to write your first legal memo? It was like learning a foreign language. And you did it!

Take some time to celebrate how far you have come. It’s also important to let your loved ones revel in your graduation. It can be as much for them, as it is for you. Take the time to thank them for their support (and remind them that they are going to need to continue to give you that space and support for a few more months).

And anytime you’re feeling like bar study is impossible, remember that you also thought surviving 1L was impossible, and yet, you persisted!